Homeschooling is no Saviour

There were several girls near my age in our small homeschool support group. I was friends with most of them, partly due to lack of any other choices for friendships. When I look at what has happened to these friends, it is saddening. Fornication, suicide attempts, anorexia, witchcraft, self-mutilation, drug and alcohol abuse, wild parties, bisexuality, single parenthood, and adultery spring to mind when I think of them. I once participated in some of this. I do not like to think of or speak of those times.

I have chosen to write about this because I believe some people have unrealistic ideas about what homeschooling will do for their children. I am an unashamed advocate of Christian education. I passionately believe that every child born into a Christian home should be taught about God all day long, not placed in educational institutions that deny God. The Bible says that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. How can places that deny God also promote true education? I would argue that they cannot. Children need to be in a place where sin is dealt with biblically, and Jesus is pointed to as the solution. They should not be "educated" in a place where sin is celebrated, seen as the normal way to act, or covered over.

I do not believe other Christians are 'in sin' if they consider it good to send children to places where God is not acknowledged, but I also think their arguments are without merit. Some argue that the children can be evangelists, yet they simultaneously acknowledge that they do not even yet know if their children are converted. This seems like a contradiction in terms. How can a person of dubious or no faith be an evangelist? If a child is well grounded in the faith, and has a demonstrated ability to stand up for it, that may be a different matter. Until a child has reached that point, parents and schools need to disciple them to reach it. This should include teaching on how to evangelise others.

Unsurprisingly, I have not always felt this way about Christian education. Seeing what happened to my friends, and my own rebellion against God, caused me to oppose it for some time. Now, my support of Christian education is informed with a healthy dose of reality. Education of any form is no Saviour. Humanists teach that it is the way to better people, a better society. Yet the decades following the implementation of their plans for compulsory, government funded education should demonstrate that they are wrong.

Some people homeschool because they believe they are removing their children from sin. This is a grave deception, and shows a lack of understanding of the human heart. Sin begins in our hearts, not in our surroundings. Christian homeschools and institutional schools, with their understanding of man's nature and God's remedy, are simply better places for dealing with this sin. They can never be Saviours from sin. Teachers there can point children to repentance and apply God's word to their lives. If teachers there do not have an understanding of these truths, they will not be effective. Our greatest danger is not from our surroundings, but from ourselves.

Months ago I greatly appreciated what Spunky Homeschool had to say about being realistic homeshcoolers, and focusing on God:

"Just in the past few months adultery, divorce, and suicide have all touched our local homeschool community. Homeschooling is not the salvation of our culture. Jesus is. Homeschooling will not make a family successful. Jesus does. Homeschooling will not keep a child from rebellion. Jesus does. Homeschooling will not keep a marriage strong. Jesus does. And the minute, I think that homeschooling will do any of these things, is the day I begin the slide toward defeat. Homeschooling will not build a successful family any more than a hammer will build a successful house.

Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Psalm 127:1

Don't expect homeschooling to do what homeschooling was not designed to do. So if you find yourself, as I often have, in a panic because you think you are not meeting the standard of a "successful homeschooler". Think again and give up the "mythical standard." Don't compare yourself to those around you. Fix your eyes on HIM."